Mail and Commentary March 28, 2012

Sen. [Chuck] Winder's bill, S.B. 1387, is a blatant misuse of medical resources. Requiring an ultrasound to view the fetus and hear its heartbeat for the purposes of convincing a pregnant woman to continue an unintended pregnancy is nothing more than emotional manipulation, not education for informed consent.

As a registered ultrasound technologist, I would like to inform the readers that the required ultrasound would almost certainly demand a transvaginal exam in order to meet the requirements of the proposed bill during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. This is not a medically necessary procedure in order to understand the stages of fetal development. Any physician involved in monitoring pregnancy should have ultrasound images at all weeks of fetal development to show a patient.

Additionally, Idahoans should be concerned that individuals at pregnancy crisis centers who perform ultrasounds may not be medically trained and certified to perform such exams because these organizations are not medical facilities and are not accountable to any medical board or oversight. This bill as written may also violate HIPPA regulations for patient confidentiality; after reading the entire bill, it is not clear how the physician is required to report ultrasound exams for pregnancy termination.

Conservative government overreach or proper education?

--Lauren Gusinow, Boise

Boise Weekly heard even more about S.B. 1387 on Facebook.

Almost any man knows that if a woman is mad at him, he has a problem; if two women are mad at him, he has a serious problem; if three or more women are mad at him, he'd better just climb onto his horse or motorcycle or into his truck or car and get the hell out of the county, the state, maybe even the country. And these idiots in the Legislature have hundreds (probably thousands) of women mad at them, and don't have sense enough to shut up and go away.

--Gordon R. Peterson

They think women are dumb. "Well, just wait for a good shoe sale and they'll forget alllllllllll about it!" Vote them out!

­--Annie Lloyd

Party's Over

It's time to stop voting on party lines, period, and I think it's great that [James Mace is] stepping up (Boiseweekly.com, Citydesk, "Democrat Announces Write-In Challenge to Chuck Winder," March 21, 2012). Idaho needs to stop voting one party or the other in such a default fashion--we can bitch and moan about how things are, but unless we shake it up a bit, and get some different (read: not incumbent) points of view rolling into our Legislature, we're just going to continue to stagnate. We have to get the entrenched career politicians out of office, and get some fresh air in there. Believe in whatever you want to, but for Pete's sake, get out there and vote.

--Leopardstripes,

online

I can not really call myself a Democrat, more of a traditional Republican before the social conservatives jumped over to the GOP. But [James Mace] certainly has my support. The GOP is going to have to end the clown show that has been going on for years and tell these people to take a hike.

It's unfortunate for the GOP, but the people working on quality of life issues and thinking ahead are the Democrats. The GOP needs to get its act together and start working on real issues rather than trying to refight the same divisive social issues. Even Gov. Otter is embarrassed over these people.